This report presents findings and observations from Better Work Egypt’s interactions in the garment sector throughout 2022.
It provides an update on the state of the garment industry in Egypt, and of non- garment factories that the programme is working with as well. The report is the first to be published by Better Work Egypt and will provide a snapshot and baseline for working in the sector in the years to come. By highlighting trends in the sector, common violations, and key challenges, the report provides many opportunities for sectoral collaboration to address the identified issues.
The report is primarily based on non-compliance findings from 57 assessment reports collected throughout 2022. Compliance assessments are the core data source in this report; during two-day, unannounced visits, a team of two assessors triangulates between direct observations, document review and interviews with workers and managers to determine if a given factory has violated specific national labour laws or international labour standards. These assessments are then synthesized across the 57 garment factories to provide a measure of how frequent violations are.
Better Work found evidence of few violations of the four core labour standards assessed – child labour, discrimination, forced labour, and freedom of association and collective bargaining. However, it should be noted that assessing certain of these issues during a 2-day assessment presents challenges (see Annex C Methodology and limitations).
Almost all non-compliances are cited under the four working conditions clusters – compensation, contracts and human resource, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and working time. (OSH was declared a fundamental principle and right at work in June 2022. Better Work is discussing how to adjust its approach to assessing OSH with ILO experts, and did not change its approach during 2022.) The most common violations are noted under the OSH cluster, in particular for emergency preparedness, worker protection, and health services and first aid.